Disclaimer: Again, Don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. Prometheus, the name of Kisshu's ship in this fanfiction, was adapted from the Tau'ri (Human) ship Prometheus, in Stargate SG-1.
Note: Thanks to everyone who read the last chapter. Lol. This chapter's even longer! 14 pages! Heh. I have a tendency to reply to my reviews, guys. A lot. It's kind of like a conversation… but with reviewing…nvm. Anyway, the replies are at the bottom of the page.
Lyrics by Crossfade.
Chapter o2: Insecure
Looking back at me, I see
That I never really got it right
I never stopped to think of you
I'm always wrapped up in
Things I cannot win
'Mom! Dad! I'm home!' Ichigo yelled out to her parents as she walked through the front door. She kicked off her shoes and, when receiving no reply, searched the house for her elders.
With a dejected sigh, Ichigo took her time in walking to the kitchen. Her parents weren't anywhere in the house. They've gone out, she registered.
It was barely four o'clock in the afternoon. Making her way to the fridge, Ichigo noticed a note attached to the window of the griller. She plucked the folded white piece of paper from its place on the thick fiberglass and removed the blutak from the back of it. Then, whilst smoothing it out with her left hand, opened the note with her right.
Ichigo,
Your father and I have gone out to the Markets. We won't be back until late. There's food in the microwave, make sure you eat up!
Love,
Mom
P.S. We'll be back around 8 o'clock. Make sure your room's clean.
The teenager sighed again. Ah well, there was nothing she could do about it now. She faced at least three hours of boredom in her empty home; usually she turned for her parents for entertainment. Their petty little fights were quite humorous to watch, and it was always over stupid things like soy sauce or what flavor cheese should be added on spaghetti.
'Talking about spaghetti,' the stench of the tomato-based sauce soared through the air and hit the cat-girl's nose – full blast. Suddenly, despite the premature timing, all Ichigo wanted to do was burrow herself through the meal.
And so she did. It took only minutes to heat up the dinner and when it was ready to serve, Ichigo hauled herself and the food up the stairs and towards her room, a good action thriller situated in between her chest and the hand carrying the plate of warm spaghetti.
She almost cried out at how messy the room before her was. Books were over-piled on the desk and homework obviously yet to be completed. Clothes swathed the bed and floor, with jumpers and bras slung over the head of her computer chair and television.
Ichigo scowled at the mess. 'Looks like I won't be able to watch that movie.' Placing the spaghetti on the small table next to her bed (perhaps the only place not covered with clothing or books), Ichigo raced down to the first floor and placed the movie Returner back on the shelf that housed the Momomiya's DVD collection.
She trudged back up the stairs again. 'Gah!' She shuddered when reentering her room. The mess was astounding. She couldn't eat in an environment like this, let alone work.
Slurping up a few mouthfuls of warm pasta with spaghetti sauce coated thickly on top, Ichigo got to work on cleaning up her bedroom. She decided, after about twenty minutes, that giving death glares to her closet wasn't going to make it tidy, and she stuck into that as well.
By the time she was done, it was six thirty. Which only gave her an hour and a half before her parents were back…
…Only an hour and a half to do the majority of her assignments, homework and case studies needed for her to pass school.
Another sigh was emitted from the depressed teen. Well, she wouldn't go down without a fight. She plucked a random sheet from the pile that was continuously growing on her desk. It was a history report, due the next day, that was to be about the refugees that migrated from Japan to Australia in the 1970's.
How boring, Ichigo thought sorrowfully. With the sheet in hand, the auburn-haired heroine belly-flopped onto the now clean luxury of her bed. She placed the assignment aside and, with her other hand, promptly removed the pillow from its position underneath her and threw it hard on top of her head.
Ichigo sighed into the cold, neglected fabric of her pillow. She opened her eyes a little, shutting them again when the violently pink view came into mind.
'Too bright, even for a pillow,' She groaned and, upon turning, fell off the bed. The feline landed on her back, quite painfully, against the hard carpet floor.
Whoever said that cats always landed on their feet is going to get their ass kicked, the strawberry alleged silently. Getting to her feet, Ichigo walked dizzily over towards her computer desk. She removed all cords attached to her DELL laptop and took the silver contraption over towards her bed.
She grinned for the first time that afternoon, 'Wireless connection rules!' She thanked her dad mutely for buying and installing the new modem into her PC. She flipped up the monitor of the notebook and pressed down on a dark grey button on the top left-hand corner of the keyboard space.
The computer whirled to life. An image, portraying a colored flag with the words WINDOWS XP written underneath in bold white writing came onto the screen. A blue bar rotated at the bottom of the page.
Once the OS had finished booting, the screen turned azure. In the middle was an icon and next to it were the words, "Ichigo Strawberry." The cat-girl clicked on the icon. A box appeared underneath the words: Password.
In the box, Ichigo tapped a few keys, which turned up as black circles; as passwords are accustom to do. She typed "Iriomote" into the box. The words turned grey as the computer scanned the database to match the two password entries.
A second later, the computer beeped in commandment. The screen then turned into that of a lively background. A DNA strand was located on the right side and a picture of the American superstar Jessica Alba was posing on the other side. At the bottom, the words Max Guevara - Catgirl were present. At the top, the heading was Dark Angel.
Ichigo grinned at the desktop background, but remembered the real reason why she had booted up the computer in the first place. With a small frown, the secret heroine opened a new word document as well as an Internet Explorer window.
She went to Google – on a quest to find websites about boat people. Finally, after almost twenty minutes of opening websites, evaluating them, then pressing the close button on almost all of them, she found a website full of articles from CNN.
The introduction began with talking about the origins of the words boat people; Ichigo decided her report would be best to start similar, with a definition.
Again, in Google, the kitten typed in define:boat people. The search came up with few results, of which Ichigo read through them all. After reading, she decided on the first one.
It didn't take the strawberry very long before she got utterly bored with reading about immigration into Australia, a country she had actually never visited before.
To help her along, she decided, she would load up iTunes, in hope that some music would help her through the assignment. It took only seconds for the PC to acknowledge her command and process the GUI layout of iTunes.
Ichigo blinked once then twice at the powder blue and silver database of music. Then, regaining composure, she double clicked on the song "Far Away" by Nickelback – the song of which she had decided would be Aoyama-kun and her new theme song.
I keep dreaming you'll be with me
and you'll never go
Stop breathing if
I don't see you anymore
Ichigo sighed, thinking about the handsome student who had captured her heart. He's so gorgeous; she spoke mentally, blissfully drifting off into a daydream of her true love.
Only seconds into that daydream, however, the scene changed. She was Mew Ichigo, running through the forests near Café Mew Mew. She was running with all she had in her, panting softly. Finally, the Mew leader came to the oh-so-familiar clearing and ducked behind the trunk of a large oak tree, and then there was the voice…
The cat-girl shrieked, mentally planting C4 on the tracks to blow that train of thought away for good. She pressed the detonator and BAM! The kitten awoke from her daydream.
She exhaled noisily, her breath coming out in large puffs. Of course she couldn't get the incident out of her head! It happened that morning and shocked her extremely.
Ichigo placed her head down on the bed, wary of the laptop's keyboard. 'Kisshu…' The cat girl said, suddenly saddened by the array of feelings that filled her heart when she thought about him. 'Where – Where are you?' On instinct, she looked up at the window, wishing for him to be there. Not because she particularly wanted him to stalk her or anything…
But so something in that day would remain normal.
Ryou AND Minto had been nice to her, Lettuce and Zakuro were still their normal selves but Pudding was unusually quite as well. It drove Ichigo mad to see her friends so out of character.
And Kish – he was out of character too. Way out of character.
Although, he had tried to hurt her before… She obviously thought he really liked her enough not to hurt her anymore, but she must have guessed wrong.
His face was so angry, Ichigo mused to herself noiselessly, I've never seen someone so angry… She scrunched up her face, features molding into an expression of extreme discomfort or irritation. She was uncomfortable AND extremely annoyed.
'Why? Why can't I get rid of this looming feeling! Gah!' The girl buried her head further into the mattress. She could feel the migraine approaching. Awful sediment returned to her from earlier on in the morning. That bad feeling…
The feeling that something was wrong.
There was. Something was very, very wrong. She didn't know what, all she knew was that it was evil. Could it be… this Deep Blue that the aliens were talking about?
'K-Kisshu.' After uttering the name of the middle aged alien, the feelings of impending doom faded gradually. Ichigo relaxed into the doona, her scalp resting against the bottom of her laptop. She groaned with relief, the migraine slowly dissipated as well.
Why did saying Kisshu's name get rid of the bad feeling when he was the one that produced the feeling in the first place?
Ichigo sat up and her eyes fell onto the plate of now cold her bedroom door with the one she had free. She swung open the door and walked out, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.
When in the small, tiled room, Ichigo threw the remains (the majority of the spaghetti, actually) into the bin. She knew she should eat, but after the events of today – as well as the double cheesy pizza's her friends and herself devoured for lunch – she had misplaced her appetite.
Ichigo re-entered her room. It was almost spotless, except for the messed up doona she had placed her head in earlier. She grinned; her mom was going to be so happy when she saw that.
As she was making her way back to her bed, something caught Ichigo's eye. It was lying on her desk, near the now neatly stacked textbooks and work volumes. She walked over to it curiously, and then remembered something.
It was Kisshu's Dragon Sword. The one she had taken from the wounded tree. She picked it up, twirling it swiftly around with her fingers. It moved, in a blur of metallic silver and white.
I wonder.
The fifteen-year-old stopped spinning the knife and held it in her hands, inert. Then, with an inquisitive yet cautious thought, she pressed the green oval in the middle of the hilt.
Her memory preceded her actions…
Ichigo just watched Kisshu. His gaze averted from her face, to something in his hand. It was like his Dragon Sword, only longer. On the end of it was a small, semi-rectangular fork. It had two, evil-looking prongs sticking out of it and was silver, like the blade of his daggers.
His eyes, if possible, grew twice the size of which they were.
'No… No way.' He pressed the small, green oval on his dragon sword. Ichigo had once believed that it was only there as decoration. She was proved wrong in the next second.
Kisshu bought the hybrid stick up to his face, at least a foot away. He pressed down on the oval harder, his knuckles turning white. Ichigo blinked lazily, what was he doing?
Suddenly, the two prongs turned a deep emerald, then, in between the two, was a spark. It only shone for a second before –
CRACK!
The hilt of the sword suddenly exploded in an off-white, slightly yellow light. Electrical currents ran up the sword, towards the prongs and when they hit: BAM!
There was another heinous crack. Ichigo almost covered her cat ears from her place on the floor, where she had fallen after her seizure. The prongs of Kisshu's sword sparked with electricity. She could see the forks of yellow build up between the two.
It all made sense. She didn't have a heart attack or a seizure. She had been electrocuted.
By Kisshu and his pronged sword.
She jumped out of the recollection as soon as she had fallen under its hypnotic spell. She pressed on the oval harder, channeling all her power into it.
Nothing happened.
'But…' The strawberry started, confused, '…Their supposed to be identical.'
Kisshu gazed down at the green-blue planet before him. It had an odd serenity about it, yet he frowned. Earth should have been theirs by now – if it wasn't for the humans…
The green-haired alien's thoughts were interrupted suddenly with a wave of guilt. The events of the morning still had his emotions in their grasp. The object of his desire came to his mind immediately. Her face, which hung in the air above him, was smiling down at him.
'Ichigo.' Her name was beautiful, as was she.
But then it changed. Her face morphed into that of the one she was wearing after he had electrocuted her with the Hybrid Sword. Complete and utter fear adorned her features.
Kish shuddered. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get her face – terrified at what he had done to her – out of his mind.
'Why?' The extraterrestrial muttered to himself, desperate to keep himself away from the looming depression that hung over him like a black cloud. 'Why now?'
He buried his face in his hands, not knowing what else to do under the circumstances. The thoughts that crossed his mind could make anyone recoil in disgust and dislike.
His fraught murmuring was quite rudely interrupted by the yell of, 'Hey, Kisshu!' Then the arrival of Taruto, the smallest alien on board Prometheus, Kisshu's ship.
In all actuality, Kisshu wasn't in the ship at the time. He was on the ship. Above the satellite dish, which looked suspiciously like a long, silver trumpet, was a small strip of smooth, unmarked metal.
Great, he thought to himself, just what I need… Truthfully, he was glad for the distraction. It saved him from the silence that followed the depression wave.
'Oi!' He was knocked, again, out of his reveries when Tart poked him on the back, hard. Kish scowled at him, but then forced his face to relax. He couldn't let them think that this mission has gotten to him, no way. That would equal disaster for his reputation, not to mention his pride.
'What do you want?' He replied the small brunette boy.
Taruto stuck his tongue out at the elder alien. Kish rolled his eyes. 'Childish,' he muttered.
Now I'm starting to sound like Pai, he groaned again. But what does it matter?
'I just came to ask you if you wanted to have some fun on Earth,' Tart cocked an eyebrow and, as he spoke, sat down next to Kisshu.
The elder alien responded automatically with a mumble of, 'I don't feel like it.' This, unfortunately, did not cause the little alien to leave Kish alone, but to only provoke him further.
He pouted at his senior, 'You never feel like it.' He crossed his arms over his chest defiantly, gazing through at Kisshu with irate orange (an: or are they gold?) eyes.
Kish felt his anger rising. 'Just go away!' he snapped at Taruto but regretted it soon after. The younger being fell into silence, obviously hurt by his friend's words.
'Fine,' he said coldly, 'I'll see you later then.' Without further ado or time for Kisshu to respond to his gesture, Tart teleported away.
Great, Kish thought once he had gone; now I'm going to feel guilty. As if I don't feel guilty enough as it is! The celestial felt like smashing his head against the trumpet-shaped satellite a few hundred times.
He couldn't remain here, bored almost to tears – thus, the space invader teleported himself into the VR room. Maybe all he needed to do was tone his abilities with a little virtual reality.
Pai, the eldest alien bar Deep Blue-sama, was not present in the VR room when Kisshu arrived there. He took this as a sign that Pai had gone with Tart down to Earth, as the VR control room held all the ships computers, bar the navigation and steering controls.
It was also the place Pai worked for almost all the Earth days, bar when they released the Chimera animals. The navigation and steering were located in the cockpit at the far foundation of the alien aircraft.
The control room was where Kisshu drifted too now. He decided that if he were to fight, he should at least do it in style. Earth music seemed to be the way to go for this.
Although he would never admit it, the "Rock" and "Metal" music that the Earth hosted appealed to him. Loud melodies and instruments always had been something he enjoyed, unlike most of his race, whose tastes were within the most sensitive, quite sounds.
He adjusted the satellite dish on the top of the ship. The base of which he had been assembled on before, thinking to himself, began to rotate.
Kish pressed a large button on the side of the control panel, which congested the revolution. With a flip of a switch and the pull of a lever, of which was below the words "Satellite Shift." The outpost began to move down, towards a layer of clouds.
Being alien technology, yet much like Earth satellites, Prometheus' radar and settlement controls could penetrate the thick atmosphere and ozone that surrounded the blue-green planet. The satellite was automatically picking up any broadcasts coming from the area.
Static and vague voices filled the control room. The Satellite Switch lever, still being forced down, was moving towards one country of the globe.
Tokyo, Japan, to be precise.
In minutes, after mastering the art long ago, Kisshu found a radio station that best suited him. New Tokyo – American Music Station happened to be one of the best music stations in Tokyo. Kish positioned the satellite a little further left and then –
"This is the add-free 50. First up we have Mudvayne, System of a Down, Evanescence and HIM. Further information will be available on the website which has a new live broadcast for overseas fans! Lets get to the music, shall we?"
Whilst this transmission was being broadcasted, Kisshu had booted the computers for the VR room. After adjusting a few variables, the room was ready to go just as "Forget to Remember" from Mudvayne began.
Deciding that the song would do, Kisshu made his way into the middle of the VR arena. A voice came over the loudspeaker; it's booming tone overlapping the song. It counted down the numbers 5 to 1. Kisshu knew this was how long he had before the simulation began.
5…
What have I done?
4…
Where have I come from?
3…
When I burnt the backs with the sun through a glass did I seal the loss that's become me?
2…
Feeling undone
1…
What have I become?
0…
When I turned my back on you I turned my back on myself and became this machine…
Simulation: begin!
The scenario of which the fight takes place is completely random. This time, it was against the Kull Warriors from Edanna, a dead world usually described by humans as 'hell.'
The god that ruled over it was known as Amorphous, a being that has no form, other than shadows and darkness. Kisshu shuddered whenever he thought about the cold-hearted being. Not even they could measure up to his malevolence.
His mind was directed on the task before him. Escape and evade. The scenario was obvious, as was his surroundings. He was in the cockpit of Prometheus. Alarms were ringing across the loudspeakers and the only way he could keep himself from remembering this was a simulation was the music in the background.
Thoughtlessness
Selfishness
Hopelessness
Arrogant
Snapping out of the daydream almost immediately, Kish turned to monitor the navigation systems. Not only did the controls tell what was outside the ship, but what was inside as well. Much like Keiichiro's method, Kish used the heat from the black armor that was emitted from the Kull Warriors to his advantage.
The dots that appeared on the screen were red and blinking. Kisshu himself was a dot, a green one, which was not blinking but had a faded aura around it.
The green-haired alien saw five red dots on the screen as well as himself. In this simulation, it seemed that Pai and Tart were nowhere to be seen.
Mudvayne continued to belt out "Forget to Remember" as Kisshu ran down the halls and towards the escape pods. He knew, however, that it was going to be more challenging than that. The simulations were never simple.
Nor were they painless.
I feel it on the inside
Twisting and contorting
Memory has shaped me once again
He was correct in his theory that he could not arrive at the escape pod and end the situation in minutes by ejecting himself off the ship.
As he arrived, Kish punched in the combination to the escape pod dome. The console beeped in protest and a message came up upon the screen.
CODE HIBLA – DEFCON 8.9
The extraterrestrial teen's eyes narrowed. Hibla… Hibla… what was that protocol again?
It came to him after a few minutes thought. Hibla.
Hull Internal Breach – Lockdown Activated.
Still feel you on the inside
Biting through and stinging
Will I ever forget to remember?
Well, he wasn't getting out that way. The Kull Warrior attack had obviously damaged the escape pod dome whilst they landed their ship on top of Prometheus. This was a standard KW attack method, park them on top and ensnare their victims.
The hull, being the dome around the room, had imploded within itself, meaning there was a hole somewhere in the dome. When this situation occurred, Oxygen was lost throughout the entire compromised complex. There was no way anyone could survive in that area now.
Shadows in the sun
Filter through us
Still wrestle the demons that arrested me as a child
He frowned, and then decided the best place to return to would be the cockpit. He would watch the interior navigation screens and decide what the best course of action would be.
Passing the threshold of the cockpit door, he gazed out the three large, fiberglass windows. His eyes widened. They were approaching the gravitational pull of a black hole. This was the worst possible thing, other than the Kull Warriors, that could actually happen in a real life. His ship would be ripped apart by the force of the pull almost instantly.
Confession rejected
We grow up
To give up
People step on the cracks for wounds owed paid back
Through the words of surrender
Kisshu refused to give in. There is no way he would ever surrender to a Kull Warrior and be taken back to Edanna, the prison of hell the planet was. That is, if the Warriors didn't kill him instead.
He sat on the silver swivel chair in the middle of the room and pushed off of the dashboard. For a brief moment, he glided across the room gracefully. Then, the seat hit the consol on the other side with a twang and it was at a standstill.
The navigation monitor blinked at him. Once he saw the screen, the alien teenager swore.
Three of the five red dots were approaching him.
His position had been made.
Emptiness
Loneliness
Listlessness
Worthless
He tried to keep his apathy in this situation, but it was proving to be quite hard. The Kull Warriors knew where he was, most probably from the attempted release of the Escape Pod door, which had been locked down due to the HIBLA safeguard in the Prometheus' controls.
As he looked at another monitor, which displayed a more detailed map of the ship, a plan formulated in the juvenile officer's head… he would avoid the black-hole by activating the Prometheus' advanced hyper-drive and, after exiting hyperspace, find a way to strengthen the auxiliary power to match the main engines so the ship would be destroyed by moving too fast.
He would have to reprogram the precautions in the ships main power core, which was at the centre of the main floor. It would be risky, as he would have to avoid the Kull Warriors and without a planet to orbit, he couldn't teleport.
He also had no way to escape even if his plan succeeded.
The alien sighed; this was going to be a problem. Until he spotted something on the map that caught his attention – it was a large cylinder, both sides closed but with entry space in one side that could be manipulated from both outside and inside. Like an escape pod.
What was it? This troubled him, but it could be his only way out.
And then he knew. It was the rubbish chute. Used to deposit the excess parts and scraps that the Prometheus or the people on board couldn't use.
He grinned, for the first time in the simulation. He was home free.
And that was when he heard it.
I feel it on the inside
Twisting and contorting
Memory has shaped me once again
It was a sound, like a laser being fired. Kisshu visibly paled, even further than his white skin would allow. That sound, of the Kull Warrior's hand laser, was truly terrifying.
They were homing in on his position. He could hear them try to beat down the door. The metal was caving in with a loud screech with every blow.
He had nowhere to go. He was as good as dead.
Still feel you on the inside
Biting through and stinging
Will I ever forget to remember?
Stuff the plan, stuff the best course of action, Kisshu had to get out of there NOW.
He looked everywhere for a means to escape. He couldn't go through the windows, as they would just lead to space, of which he would either die from lack of air or be sucked into the black hole, which was approaching closer and closer with every passing moment.
He had already tried moving the ship but the black hole's grip was too strong. He couldn't access auxiliary power, as it was located on the other side of the ship.
Teleportation was a no go. His only hope would have to be –
The ventilation shafts.
'Freaking vents… great,' albeit his complaining, Kisshu was estatic – he wasn't done for yet. There was still hope.
Can you save me?
From myself
From these memories
As he was proceeding to crawl on his hands and knee's through the vent, the Kull Warriors beat down the door, searching for him. Kish tried to make as little noise as possible. He had closed the ventilation door behind him, as if it hadn't been touched… it bought him some time but he knew they would be looking for him meticulously.
There was a loud creak once he crept over it. He looked down to see another aeration cover below. He was very lucky that the Escape Pod dome wasn't connected to the shafts, or both him and the ship would have already been torn apart.
Can you save me?
From myself
From these memories
Deciding that he had crawled enough, Kisshu took a knee back, hoisting himself off the vent jacket then pried the jacket off itself, praying to whatever god there was that there were no Kull Warriors in the room he was exiting.
Carefully, the Martian creature lowered himself down and fell to the floor, on his feet, knees bent. He scanned the room, hands up and ready to strike (although against a Kull Warrior, you wouldn't get very far with hand-to-hand combat due to their extremely thick and impenetrable armor) and when he registered that no threat was present, he lowered his arms.
This is when he realised which room he had entered. He smirked demonically.
It was the arsenal.
Surrender
To the shadows
Haunting inside
Immediately, Kisshu got to work. He brushed back the bangs that fell over his eyes when he bent down to open the cupboard below, where the specialist weapons were located.
When he opened the sideboard however, he was met with only emptiness.
Shit. Someone had taken the BW Pistols already.
BW was the abbreviation for Beam Weapons. A Beam Weapon Pistol was the only thing that could penetrate the Kull Warrior's fitted armor. Not even electrical pulses could infiltrate the plates surrounding the body of the wearer. In fact, it had no effect at all.
'Surprised?' A dark voice came from behind him. Kisshu, on instinct, turned, only to stare into the heinously black helmet of the Kull Warrior before him. The alien teenager recoiled visibly, the small amount of colour that had returned to his face when he thought he was saved, fled it immediately, turning his pale skin completely white.
Bleed through you
Surrender to the secretes…inside
Lies within you
He was definitely not going to make it through this simulation. Only to him, it felt like his actual death. He was too far in to realise it wasn't real.
'You should be,' the warrior continued in his malevolent voice. His words made Kisshu quiver with fear. He would never see his Koneko-chan again.
Instead of raising his weapon to deliver a swift ending to Kisshu's life, the Kull Warrior did something strange.
He removed his helmet.
Kish had been told that the armor was an actual part of the warrior. But this seemed to be only a rumor to him now. He looked in the eyes of the creature that would carry out his death sentence.
The alien's eyes widened.
No. This couldn't be.
He looked into a pair of mirrored golden eyes, shocked beyond belief.
I feel it on the inside
Twisting and contorting
Memory has shaped me once again
Still feel you on the inside
Biting through and stinging
Will I ever forget to remember?
He was staring back at his own face.
It was identical to his, the deep yellow eyes, the pale skin and the hair. Only the other him had grown it out. It went almost to waist length; still tied into the two ponytails that Kisshu had himself. They were tied with the same red bands.
'Wha-Who are you?'
The man, who was obviously older than him, an adult, pointed at Kisshu's chest. The younger being in the room gasped, as if he had struck him.
'I am you.'
He felt his blood run cold.
Can't feel you on the inside
Set down the bag and left it
Lost memory has left me
Once again
'N-no! You can't be! I'm here… I'm – me.' Or he was convinced he was himself. But that wasn't the point.
The elder cocked an eyebrow at him, 'Really?'
This only confused Kisshu even more, 'Huh?'
A laugh sounded through the air, it was crisp and dark. The man was laughing at him.
This guy must be an imposter, Kisshu thought to himself; maybe they have a new device that can mimic other people. He knew, however, that no such idea existed.
Open up the inside
Admission for the cleansing
Now that I've forgotten to remember
His imposter, still clad in the Kull Warrior Armor, spoke again then. 'Could you really kill yourself?' Kish blinked.
'I don't have a weapon. I can't kill you.'
The imposter smirked down at his younger opponent, 'Yes you can. You don't need a weapon. You already have the power.'
He took a step towards him. In return, Kisshu took another one back. The two continued this until Kisshu found himself pinned against the wall.
His enemy placed the length of his lower arm against his neck. Kisshu shuddered at the feeling of the black armor against his skin. He gasped again when his breathing became constricted. His imposer was going to suffocate him.
'Your not getting away this time, Harcesis.'
Kisshu couldn't speak. His thoughts faded into black.
Surrender
To the shadows
Haunting inside
Bleed through you
'Kisshu! KISSHU…what should we do, Pai, he's not waking up!' The voice was high pitched and frantic, it was the first thing he heard when Kish stirred from unconsciousness.
'Look-' Another voice, of which Kish registered was Pai, filled the void of silence that had previously captivated the alien teenager, '-Tart! Get off me! That hurts!' There was a pause, 'He's coming to.'
I hate silence, Kish thought to himself as he tried to open his eyes, but it's better than the alternative.
Once his eyes snapped open, his two friends hoisted him up into a sitting position. 'Wha- what happened?' He could feel a migraine coming along and it was NOT amusing.
He frowned and squeezed his eyes shut, which made the dull throb in his head deepen painfully, causing him to cry out and alarm both the younger and elder alien flanked at his left and right sides.
All Kisshu wanted to do was lay down again. Sleep. Lose consciousness. He didn't care so long as he didn't have these thoughts and memories, from eons past, to return to him again.
It… it hurts too much. It wasn't the migraine harming him now, but the memory.
'Kisshu! Are you okay? What happened?' Taruto bombarded his elder with questions. Kisshu frowned. This was not helping.
'Didn't I just ask you that?' The alien placed a pale white hand to his equally pallid forehead. He recoiled at his own touch.
'I'm starting to remember,' thoughts flooded through him even as he spoke, 'tell me what you know.' He directed his question towards Pai more than Tart as the littlest alien was still asking questions.
The eldest alien began, 'Tart and I were returning from our mission on Earth. Tart went looking for you and I went up to the control room where I noticed the satellite was active – I shut it down. Then I realised the Virtual Reality controls were also active.'
He continued, after a brief nod to his recovering friend, 'and that's when I found you, lying on the floor in the Virtual Reality room. I called Tart, we tried to wake you and there you have it.'
Kisshu nodded, 'I was in a scenario with the Kull Warriors-' he saw Tart shudder, '-I guess one of them snuck up on me.' He knew this was a lie, but he couldn't tell them what really happened. They wouldn't understand. That something was stuck in his memory even now. It scared him inconceivably.
He sighed. Everything had been so peaceful when it had been silent. It was strange for him to admit, but true.
'Pai?' Kisshu whispered, suddenly feeling horribly drained. 'Are you sure those warriors aren't…like us? I mean, without the armour?'
Pai nodded again, although for a different purpose this time. 'Positive,' the adult alleged, 'The armour of the Kull Warrior is embedded in the skin and flesh of the creature.'
Creature. This answer only served to confuse Kisshu. Yet he couldn't ask anything further without revealing what he had seen.
How could the identical onii-sama survive without the armour if it was embedded in his skin? Kisshu clearly remembered the figure removing the Kull Warrior helmet to reveal and un-marked face. In fact, it was quite similar to his. Yet Kisshu had no living relatives or siblings.
But there were differences too. Kish couldn't follow that train of thought because right then Pai interrupted the array of mental voices with: 'are we done here? You should visit the infirmary.'
So he did. Eustachia, the nurse in the infirmary sent from Madrona (Kisshu's planet), smiled as he walked in.
'Ah, Kisshu-Kisshu, so what did you do his time?' Eustachia, being sent down to silently monitor the alien's fights with the Mew Mew's, was not present when he fell and apparently fainted.
The beautiful alien female smiled serenely, tossing one of her many ebony locks over her strong shoulders. Today, she wore a simple white dress, almost the same shade of her light skin, but a bit brighter.
Kisshu adored Eustachia, yet she was more like a mother to him than a potential lover and would stay like that. The nurse was many summers older than he and his heart lied solely with his Koneko-chan, albeit the fact that the love was not returned.
The female alien's sapphire eyes narrowed slightly in soft and well-intended suspicion. 'Is something on your mind, Kisshu-san?'
The younger alien blinked up at her dumbly before saying, 'I fainted in the VR room and I thought I saw something just before.' He shrugged, 'It must have been in the simulation.'
Eustachia guided him over to one of the hospital beds of the infirmary. 'Tell me,' the nurse requested. Kish nodded, knowing his secret was safe with her.
And so he told her everything, the incident with Ichigo that morning and how he felt like he couldn't control it, his thoughts after, then the incident with the VR room and the scenario of the Kull warriors, the mysterious elder look-alike and finally how he woke up feeling peculiarly like crap.
Eustachia had remained silent for the period of time in which he spoke. Finally, once he had finished, she replied to his epic. 'You should go visit her. You need not say anything nor make your presence known to her. But nonetheless, make sure she's coping.'
Kish nodded and moved to teleport, but Eustachia stopped him. She placed a few vibrantly red tablets into his hand. 'To help with the headache,' was all she said to him. He nodded.
Then he teleported off the ship. As he was beaming down to Earth, something struck him. He hadn't told Eustachia that he had had a headache.
Albeit the circumstances, Kisshu smiled. That woman sure was amazing.
End Note: Chapter two is finitio! Yay Postie time:D Please review and tell me what you think. Feedback is awesome. Btw, Kisshu isn't going to get with Eustachia, just thought I'd clarify. She's just a character I shoved in to give him advice
Replies:
Tylec Asroc: Despite how smart everyone says I sound when writing a fanfic, I had to search up what xenophobia really was. Lol. I could just imagine Kisshu walking down the street, screaming his head off at the fact that there are so many strangers. But I bet you meant the fear of the 'unknown.' Thanks for the review.
Cruelfeline: Most of my grammatical errors come from the fact that a) my computer grammar checker sucks, b) I live in Australia (where we say colour instead of color) and c) I HATE the word lose. Lol. Seriously, I got marks deducted from one of my reports because I kept spelling that word wrong.
Anyways… I feel privileged. Extremely privileged as you write kishxichigo goodness so well yourself Heh. I guess the chapter length thing came from the fact that I drabble on a lot (I like discussing EVERYTHING… and yet I still have trouble phoning people…O.o), oh, and that after spending two years writing duds for Harry Potter and Mediator fics, my lengthiness finally paid off. Yay dances
One more thing – Calculus Test? You poor, poor soul. I shudder even at the mention of the two words alone, let alone in an actual SENTENCE together.
Shardra-Chan: Heh. Thank-cha:D Your stories are awesome too!
Saingirl101: Yay! Fourth reviewer. Thanks for reviewing. I've read your story, but I'm not sure if I left a comment… anyways, thanks again.
Love,
exangeline